Intel's new QX9775 CPU is based upon their Yorkfield XE codenamed CPUs. The QX9775 is a Quad Core CPU meaning that on the SkullTrail platform there is the possibility of 8 CPU cores on a single motherboard. Intel is the first CPU maker to the 45 nanometer die process with AMD still lagging at 65nm at the moment.

There are two models of Yorkfield XE CPU on the market with this launch, the QX9775 server CPU being reviewed here and the QX9770 enthusiast CPU for the consumer market. The QX9775 CPU is designed to work only on Intel's Skulltrail motherboards. The board we got for review had two QX9775 CPUs installed in Socket LGA-771 interfaces. LGA-771 is very similar to the LGA-775 interface used in consumer motherboards, with 4 less pins and designed for server motherboards. It was released in 2006 as a dual processor solution to complement the new CPUs.

Front Side Bus is one of the major changes to the Yorkfield XE and Yorkfield CPUs hitting the market. Earlier Intel CPUs had a maximum FSB of 1333MHz, but the new Yorkfield XE CPUs have increased that to 1600MHz effective. This allows Intel to lower the multiplier and increase the clock speed of the CPUs. Each QX9775 CPU has 12MB of L2 cache, which is split into two 6MB caches. Each CPU core can use up to 6MB of L2 cache at a time on an application.

The expected TDP (Thermal Design Power) power requirements of the QX9775 CPUs are 150W each. The TDP of the QX9770 CPU is 136W. The earlier QX9650 Quad Core CPU had a TDP of 130W, meaning that there are some design modifications to the server CPU that require extra power, including more stability, and higher load under stress. The TDP is defined as the maximum power draw sustained during normal operations of the CPU.

Intel really ushered in the era of modern gaming with the MMX multimedia extensions. Every processor released since the Pentium MMX from both Intel and AMD supports MMX. Intel released Streaming SIMD Extensions with the Pentium III. The latest instruction set from Intel is the SSE4.1 was introduced with the 45nanometer process Intel CPUs including the QX9650 and the QX9775 that this review is using. Intel says that SSE4 is the largest improvement to the SSE architecture since SSE2 in terms of scope and impact. The die size of the new CPU is 2x107mm2 and the CPUs are rumored to run fairly cool for Quad-Core.